Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson A number of pro-family leaders are starting to ask if Sesame Street is safe for kids. Of course, this isn’t the first time that question has been asked. But recent events are the reason for asking the question with even greater concern. For more than 50 years, the television show Sesame Street has been a program that parents could endorse. It had lovable characters and even taught children some basic educational concepts along with important social skills. Sometimes…

Kerby Anderson In a recent presidential debate, Senator Bernie Sanders defended his candidacy by proclaiming that he was trying to “give a voice to people who after 45 years of work are not making a nickel more than they did 45 years ago.” It was a powerful statement, but it deserves more scrutiny. Let’s begin by acknowledging that the graphs of wage growth since 1975 are essentially flat when adjusted for inflation. There’s more to the story though, but let’s…

Kerby Anderson Boys are in crisis. That should be obvious, but Dr. Warren Farrell still has to spend his first six chapters documenting it. He was on my radio program to talk about the book, The Boy Crisis, that he wrote with Dr. John Gray. First, there is the crisis of our sons’ mental health. For example, the increase in the suicide rate among white males led to as many white male deaths as were lost to AIDS. The rate…

Kerby Anderson When the Boy Scouts of America filed chapter 11 bankruptcy recently, was anyone really surprised? Wasn’t this the most predictable “I told you so” moment for those of us in the Christian world? We supported the Boy Scouts through all of their troubles and lawsuits. But when they decided to turn their backs on their history, we could see what would happen. To be fair, the Boy Scouts spent decades fending off the unholy trinity of G’s: gays,…

Penna Dexter Where do public school bureaucrats get the idea that they, not parents, have the final authority to decide, in some very sensitive areas, what is best for children? In Madison, Wisconsin, this attitude is some parents’ worst nightmare as teachers help children begin gender transitions without notifying their parents. Fourteen Wisconsin parents, representing eight families, are bringing a lawsuit against the Madison Metropolitan School District. They are asking a state court to halt a district policy whereby teachers…

Kerby Anderson Even though there is lots of evidence that violence is declining, many people don’t believe it. On my radio program, we have documented that the violent crime rate has dropped significantly over the last few decades. And if you want a longer look at the decline in violence over millennia, you could pick up the 2011 book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, by Steven Pinker. Apparently, many people don’t believe it. That is why he spends a…

Kerby Anderson Nine years ago, I quoted historian Niall Ferguson in one of my commentaries. His book, Civilization: The West and the Rest, explained that Western Civilization succeeded because of six “killer apps—competition, modern science, the rule of law and private property rights, modern medicine, the consumer society, and the work ethic.” These are the secret sauce of Western Civilization. Last week he explained this in a PragerU video with the title “Why the West Won.” Since you probably won’t…

Kerby Anderson Kristen Day asked former mayor Pete Buttigieg an important question. She is the executive director of Democrats for Life. She explained that there are 21 million pro-life Democrats and wanted to know if he would support “more moderate platform language in the Democrat Party to ensure that the party of diversity, of inclusion, really does include everybody.” He was not interested in changing the language. None of the other Democrat candidates for president show any interest in returning…

Kerby Anderson There was a time in the past when political leaders of both parties talked about the importance of religion in the founding of this country. Terry Jeffrey found a speech by an urban northeastern Democrat that illustrated this so well. The candidate proclaimed that “a devotion to fundamental religious principles has characterized American thought and action.” He argued that the nation’s greatest leaders understood the “essential religious idea” of our founding. “Our earliest legislation was inspired by this…

Kerby Anderson At this point in the election season, it is difficult to predict what will happen once the votes are counted in November. The president could be reelected or defeated. Republicans might win back the House and keep the Senate. Or the opposite could occur. It is likely that we will once again have a divided government like what we currently have. That will mean very little will get done legislatively. But it is worth explaining to the younger…

Penna Dexter A new study about the state of the family leads to an unexpected conclusion. Researchers Wendy Wang and Bradford Wilcox studied trends in progressive California because, they write, “California has been at the vanguard of family change in America.” The study is titled: “State of Contradiction: Progressive Family Culture, Traditional Family Structure in California.” Their surprising conclusion: California has “a higher share of stable, married families than the nation as a whole.” Drs. Wang and Wilcox found that…